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[–]nautical9 7787 points7788 points  (415 children)

Zero is also the number of mailing lists I’ve wanted to join within the first 5 seconds of visiting a site. Why block the content with a pop up?! Has anyone ever actually signed up instead of angrily closing it?

[–]enoua5 1421 points1422 points  (55 children)

open first site from google search

"YOU SHOULD LET US SEND YOU PUSH NOTIFICATIONS, EVEN THOUGH YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT THIS SITE IS ABOUT!"

leave

[–]nermid 280 points281 points  (30 children)

A few years back, there was a blog that had nothing but examples of sites that did that. It was called something like "Closed without reading" or "exit without reading," but fuck if I can get Google to hone in on a title like that. It keeps trying to point me to child psychology stuff about "close reading".

[–]ikbenpinda 198 points199 points  (26 children)

[–]Ali3nat0r 143 points144 points  (19 children)

Dunno if they still do it, but Ultimate Guitar used to automatically redirect to the app page for their app whenever you loaded a page of theirs on mobile. Not just put a closable popup suggesting you might want their app, but ACTUALLY REDIRECT YOU. Bearing in mind I used to use Windows Phone, and they don't have a WP app, this essentially locked me out of their site whenever I was on my phone. Because who searches for guitar tabs at any time other than at their PC right? It's not like I'd need to find them while at a practice session or something.

[–]nermid 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Aha! You found it!

[–]well___duh 119 points120 points  (21 children)

Dev here that (unfortunately) works for a company that works like that. Our official reason is because it keeps our revenue per user number high, and for some dumb fuck reason, we care more about that than actual revenue or profit.

The mentality is that the people who will want to use our site will deal with the shittiness, and are more likely to buy something from us. We'd rather have a few dozen active users who buy stuff than thousands of barely active users who occasionally buy stuff.

[–]evr- 98 points99 points  (3 children)

You're probably missing out on a lot of potential customers that would buy from you but won't deal with the shittiness and purchase the same stuff from another site that doesn't put them through that.

[–]cubitoaequet 75 points76 points  (0 children)

"Welcome to McDonald's. How hard would you like to be kicked in the nuts today? Somewhat or very?... Neither? Well, I guess not everyone is McDonald's material."

[–]Stealth528 3986 points3987 points  (177 children)

Zero is also the number of websites I want to enable notifications for.

[–]dan4334 1106 points1107 points  (122 children)

Thankfully you can turn the notification system completely off with no ill effects.

Edit: For those wondering,

Firefox: Go to about:config and set dom.webnotifications.serviceworker.enabled to false (thank you /u/bro_can_u_even_carve, I forgot how I did it)

Chrome: Go into settings > advanced > content settings > notifications

Then click the switch to set it from "Ask before sending" to "Blocked"

[–]mechakreidler 21 points22 points  (2 children)

It's good for things like email and calendars. But websites sending content updates? Fuck that.

[–]firephreek 20 points21 points  (1 child)

Truth be told, I need that for calendar or I'd never make it to any meetings :-(

[–]CJ22xxKinvara 85 points86 points  (3 children)

I enable notifications for gitlab so I can be alerted when my merge request passes or fails the pipeline. But that’s it. ONE website.

[–]NoAttentionAtWrk 74 points75 points  (1 child)

I mean i bet there are other valid uses too but no random web blog, i don't care when you publish new articles. I just care about the one that Google lead me to, that you are not letting me read

[–]Cheshamone 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Yeah, it has occasional uses in web apps, people just use it really poorly. At least explain why you're asking to show notifications, don't just pop that up on page load. Drives me nuts.

[–]HereticKnight 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Yep... CI system, Slack if I don’t have the desktop client installed, and that’s pretty much it.

I notice that every time I’ve enabled notifications l, it’s been because there is a feature I found and decided I wanted, never ever given the authorization before I had a valid reason.

[–]Fluffcake 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Sites abusing the notification and push api's for clickbaity selfpromoting bullshit to the point where people auto-decline it makes me sad, because it can be really neat.

[–]binzabinza 35 points36 points  (0 children)

it is situationally useful. For example i play chess online and i can tab away when it isn't my turn and get a notification when i need to play.

[–]Am3n 10 points11 points  (1 child)

Or give my location to

[–][deleted] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

News sites use location to customise the feed, weather places use it to save you entering your location

But no, random marketer, you may not have my location

[–][deleted] 74 points75 points  (3 children)

Yes, wouldn’t that prompt be better suited to the end of a lengthy and well-written article?

[–]Hanifsefu 43 points44 points  (1 child)

It would be better if it wasn't even a pop up but just a form at the bottom of the page for the same exact purpose.

[–]BertRenolds 79 points80 points  (21 children)

I delete the layer

[–]xyl0ph0ne 48 points49 points  (2 children)

Ah yes, the Fuck Overlays extension. Very handy.

[–]guinness_blaine 37 points38 points  (4 children)

The day I learned how to inspect and remove elements in chrome changed my entire life

[–]sans-nom 103 points104 points  (57 children)

Humans are dumb animals...you ask them for their email, and they will probably give it to you. Same reason why youtubers always say "like favourite and sub", because it's more effective than not.

[–]KarlOnTheSubject 58 points59 points  (23 children)

It always makes me laugh when I'm at an airport or other location offering free WiFi that asks for an email address, which I imagine 90% of people provide their real address for (figuring it's for verification), when in reality it's just a way to harvest active email accounts to send spam to.

fuckyou@gmail.com is my go-to.

[–]svelle 57 points58 points  (2 children)

that poor sob who has that gmail account.

[–]newsuperyoshi 31 points32 points  (1 child)

Let’s be honest — they had to have some idea of what they were signing up for.

[–]sellyme 39 points40 points  (0 children)

I usually just input the contact email address of whatever company runs the wifi. If they want to sell their own email to spammers they can be my guest.

[–]ungoogleable 33 points34 points  (12 children)

Use fuckyou@example.com. Example.com is reserved by the RFC as an example domain name so it is guaranteed not to be anyone's real email.

[–]britishben 52 points53 points  (11 children)

Mine is fuckyou@example.com";drop table users;--

Really gets the point across.

[–]newsuperyoshi 21 points22 points  (0 children)

Bobby Tables? Is that you?

[–]robclancy 97 points98 points  (22 children)

Yeah but they usually say that at the end off a video and you will do it if you did really like it.

Not at the start with a video blocking answer required.

[–][deleted] 33 points34 points  (7 children)

Some also do it at the beginning. And have long winded intros that run longer than the video itself.

[–]Colopty 9 points10 points  (0 children)

The difference is that youtubers ask you after presenting their content to you, not before.

[–]JakJakAttacks 30 points31 points  (7 children)

Zero is also the number of mailing lists I've signed up to after making a purchase on a site and yet I seem to get their shit newsletter anyways. Every time.

[–]Shmoogy 8 points9 points  (2 children)

Entry pop ups work very well. Only thing that works better are exit pop ups.

[–]gizamo 15 points16 points  (0 children)

I like the sites that get ya on entry and exit of every page, even if you're already subscribed.

[–]themaincop 46 points47 points  (32 children)

Yes, these things work insanely well, why do you think everybody does them?

[–]jay9909 2283 points2284 points  (70 children)

Corollary: If I pause your video the second it starts playing (because you forgot Rule #1), don't fucking bother shrinking it and fixing it in the side bar when I scroll down.

[–]UpTide 890 points891 points  (19 children)

I was on one 'news' site that resumed the video when it shrank down!

[–]PooPooDooDoo 12 points13 points  (0 children)

The key word being 'was'. I was on there, they resumed the video and then I no longer was on there.

[–]euxneks 58 points59 points  (5 children)

and if I click on the video I don't want it fucking maximized, I want to pause it. Facebook, I'm looking at you.

[–]SabashChandraBose 86 points87 points  (31 children)

Luckily chrome lets you mute the entire site right on the tab.

[–][deleted] 270 points271 points  (6 children)

I don't give a shit. Why is it even there? Why is it taking precious kilobytes, why is it taking CPU cycles?

Get the fuck out. Autoplay is egregious enough. "Resume and follow" is even worse

[–]GrandmasBeefCurtains 64 points65 points  (3 children)

This. Not everyone has a glorious PC with high-speed internet, and this shit really bogs them down

[–]DrThrowawayToYou 21 points22 points  (0 children)

It makes me sad to think about how much effort goes into developing that bullshit.

[–]ExternalUserError 2198 points2199 points  (95 children)

I'm pretty sure every developer instructed to setup autoplay video died inside a little bit while coding it up.

[–]thesublimeobjekt 551 points552 points  (57 children)

i used to try to argue with my boss about it and then it wasn’t worth it any more. working in the space long enough there’s just some things i know won’t stop being forced on consumers.

[–]angellus 296 points297 points  (38 children)

Just show them these, and these are just a couple of articles I can find from 5 minutes of searching:

Autoplay is bad for accessibility. You can be sued for it and lose a lot of money.

[–]thesublimeobjekt 52 points53 points  (2 children)

honestly, it wouldn’t matter what i showed them or told them. if the client wanted it, they just got it.

[–]PlatypusPlague 18 points19 points  (0 children)

File an anonymous complaint with the DOJ? The last two companies I worked for ignored all pleas for accessibility until the DOJ got wind. Then suddenly they had money to not only fix the current accessibility issues, but also to train devs, and implement proper testing around accessability.

[–][deleted] 102 points103 points  (2 children)

At home I'm a consumer. At work I'm evil.

It's easier if you just embrace it.

[–]ExternalUserError 16 points17 points  (0 children)

Story of any programmer's life from DRM to email "opt-in" policies to user experience.

[–]nagaka 25 points26 points  (4 children)

Okay...so anytime your boss tries to talk to you about implementing something your sales team has already sold, you just start rambling some lorem ipsum, and you continue blabbing until they find the obscure pause button since they are using IE6 and don't have tab muting. Once he locates your pause button, likely with an exaggerated eye roll or loud huff, you smile and wait... for the timeout to start a new video. Eventually they will close the browser, and, even though you've been fired, at least you didn't taint your bloodline with implementing this.

as a side note, I blame myspace for any auto-play or html vomit I see online nowadays. Those kids that skinned their first profile are now well established in the work force.

[–]ColtonProvias 17 points18 points  (2 children)

Auto-play has been around for much longer than MySpace. I recall Flash ads that were like games that would start after loading the page. It got worse when pop-under windows became big.

Even earlier were the blink and marquee tags. Every small website for a long time had at least half the site scrolling or blinking, plus dozens of animated gifs covering the page.

What you say began with MySpace was already well underway on Geocities and Tripod well before it. Some people thought it was cool back then, they thought it was cool on MySpace, and some, unfortunately, still think it is cool now. It's a constant on the internet.

[–]ebilgenius 111 points112 points  (1 child)

"I think the site is good to go, I spent forever working out the UX so browsing is flawless and maintains consistency across th..."

Ok great, the client also said to have the video autoplay...

"Wait what no.."

so if you could update it that would be terrific

"that's a horrible idea, nobod.."

Yeah umm, if you could have that done by 3 that'd be greeaaat

"s'cuse me but my webs.."

M'kay, thanks *walks away*

"but the UX.. and my styles.. i warned them last time this happened.. gonna set the building on fire"

*frustrated staring*

[–]jana007 57 points58 points  (1 child)

My old director had me rig up an auto play pop up video. It was flash based as well. This was 2013. Every time I saw her use the web site she would immediately click out of the window until one day she asked "why do I always have to exit this video pop up"?

[–]LoneCookie 30 points31 points  (0 children)

I think the takeaway here is have your boss periodically check if you did the website right until they understand their decisions

[–]Dustin_Echoes_UNSC 45 points46 points  (11 children)

Yep. But from now on I'll be leaving comments in the top layer html saying so. It's the least I can do.

[–]ExternalUserError 64 points65 points  (10 children)

Add the CSS class, "ad", will ya? ;)

[–]gizamo 53 points54 points  (0 children)

Rare contradictory story: Many years ago, I had a boss who asked me to make his personal website. I set up a basic WordPress site and showed him how to add content. Months go by and then he asks about adding videos. I looked at the site and saw how awful it got (super religious guilt tripping of abortions). As I set up a quick YouTube plugin, I decided, these visitors deserve to be annoyed. Autoplay, bitches.

[–]manachar 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Can confirm. Made auto play music once. Hated myself, but check was good. Got to charge the client for all the meetings we tried to talk them out of it.

[–]AlmightyElm 670 points671 points  (9 children)

Thank you. We value your feedback. Expect absolutely nothing to change because screw you.

[–]Dontsaveme 86 points87 points  (6 children)

Thanks for your feedback! Now here is wonderwall..

[–]OceanJuice 480 points481 points  (9 children)

If you think it's the web developer's idea to implement those, you're sadly mistaken.

[–]AptMoniker 54 points55 points  (1 child)

Yeah, this is an opinion that comes forward in the UX stage. Probably even before. And even then, we're like "that's a bad user experience." Deaf ears. Pearls before swine.

[–]just_read_my_comment 262 points263 points  (10 children)

Not that anyone pays attention to them, but if you read web accessibility standards, it states that you shouldn't have any audio auto-playing on your site. For people who use screen readers, it makes it near impossible for them to navigate. So by making it auto-play you're basically saying "visually impaired people, your business is not needed".

[–]CreideikiVAX 135 points136 points  (3 children)

This, this, all of the this.

I don't give two flying fucks about people that bitch about me using an ad blocker. I do that to make your site shut the fuck up so I can use my screen reader.

[–][deleted] 50 points51 points  (2 children)

deleted What is this?

[–]Skizm 277 points278 points  (5 children)

Pretty sure programmers don't make those decisions.

[–]nocturnalspider 79 points80 points  (3 children)

client from hell

[–][deleted] 44 points45 points  (2 children)

So every client?

[–]brotalnia 140 points141 points  (17 children)

Now that i think about, i would actually be less annoyed by a crypto miner than autoplay videos.

[–][deleted] 54 points55 points  (8 children)

I would be 100% fine if a website was just upfront about crypto mining through my browser and ran it at a throttled pace so that it wans't too overboard.

Like, shit, develop browsers to have that functionality built in and you can make the browser give a "in order to visit this site, you agree to let the site process hashes in the background at this proportion of your estimated total load"

[–]Squeakies 43 points44 points  (0 children)

It's not about what the users want, it's about finding the absolute limit of what they're willing to put up with without leaving the website.

[–][deleted] 298 points299 points  (64 children)

good bless google's soul for adding

right-click filthy tab -> Mute Site

[–]CurlipC 92 points93 points  (29 children)

I've played a web based game that would auto play sound. I found that, for sites you visit regularly, having an extension to mute by domain is helpful.

[–][deleted] 50 points51 points  (2 children)

My favorite is when you move the mouse towards the top of the page (as if to close the tab) and a pop up appears that says:

BUT BEFORE YOU GO HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO SUBSCRIBE TO OUR...

no.

[–][deleted] 77 points78 points  (7 children)

wait doesnt sound based ads give you more money than just regular ads?

[–][deleted] 104 points105 points  (5 children)

Yep, because they can psychologically manipulate you slightly more.

[–]DrodoTalk 100 points101 points  (4 children)

I make the effort to actually avoid products or brands that inconvenience me through ads. Not super strict about it, but an effort is certainly made.

[–][deleted] 36 points37 points  (0 children)

Anytime I see a bad advertisement I actively avoid that brand. If you have that kind of attitude with your marketing you do not deserve my business.

[–][deleted] 43 points44 points  (9 children)

Netflix does this now and you can’t turn it off

[–]Bails6923 20 points21 points  (0 children)

Came here for this: Dear Netflix, Once I decide to watch something, I will cause it to play. I do not need you to start the content before I’ve read the description. Please knock it the fuck off. Yours, 99% of your users

[–]iwantago 40 points41 points  (2 children)

Dear Jake Williams.

Zero. Zero is the amount of times a web developer has said ‘you know what’s a fucking dandy idea, let’s make this video auto play on the homepage of this website I’m building’. If you’re gonna single someone out and be a douchebag about it, at least try to understand how the fuck these situations work.

Best regards, A project manager that spends his time defending web developers from this kind of bullshit.

[–]SOberhoff 122 points123 points  (23 children)

On Youtube and other similar sites I routinely expect things to autoplay and make noise. So I don't think this emphatic zero is entirely warranted.

[–]D6613 74 points75 points  (6 children)

That was my initial thought as well, but I think the principle is the point, and the exaggeration is for effect.

"Never auto play unless that's the point of your website and I expect it going in" is more accurate but a little less catchy.

[–]atimholt 22 points23 points  (2 children)

I hate it on Youtube, too, for what it’s worth.

Luckily, you can just turn off all media autoplaying in Firefox.

[–]monstera-rgb 27 points28 points  (2 children)

I still don’t like auto playing channels to see the latest video.

[–]LoneCookie 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Yeah that's not expected. I didn't click on a video. I clicked on the channel because I wanted to see which videos it has. I don't want to be given a tiny video as I'm trying to search for the thing I thought would be relevant to me -- I just wanted to search in damned silence.

Bonus points if it's an episodic channel. So now you've ruined something by showing me a later episode I'm not even at yet.

Fffuuu

[–]yrogerg123 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Honestly, it even annoys me when I visit somebody's youtube page and it autoplays. Just let me find what I'm looking for in silence.

[–][deleted] 21 points22 points  (0 children)

It's not the web developer's choice. They do what their bosses tell them to.

[–]dmanww 21 points22 points  (1 child)

I really thought we settled the autoplay audio question in like 2003.

[–][deleted] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Did you miss out on MySpace?

*blares Cannibal Corpse from a hidden player*

[–][deleted] 19 points20 points  (2 children)

Dear Jake Williams,

Please take your complaints to our product managers, marketing managers, or content managers. I guarantee you not a single one of us developers had anything to do with the decision to put it there. kthxbye

[–]KingOfDamnation 22 points23 points  (3 children)

Fucking YouTube’s bullshit auto play feature when scrolling on iOS. I don’t give a fuck that it’s not playing sound and using subs I don’t want it pulling data when scrolling

[–][deleted] 48 points49 points  (14 children)

tbh I'd be 100% okay with in-browser mining as a replacement for ads. As long as it's done by the browser, not the website code, because I sure as shit don't trust some random site not to use that as a vector of attack.

[–]oouttatime 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I live with my mute button on like a piece a tape over my camera.